I am trying to silence my computer and I am having a hard time. Reason is that I am trying to record some voice overs and such and my computer is loud enough that the fans get picked up by my microphone. I can easily block out the sound with noise removal but that just lowers audio quality overall and I don't want to do that. I switched from some crazy Delta 1212's to some GT2150's all running PWM and when running the PWM fans as low of RPMs as they can go my computer is no quieter than it was before. The Deltas were just as quiet as the GT's at low RPM. Very frustrating. So I guess its time to start looking for fans again. I have two options in my case. I have a 6 port fan controller, and I have a PWM Hub/splitter thingy that plugs in to the PSU. Currently the GT's are all connected to the PWM hub. My case is the Corsair A540.... 3 fans in the front of the case as intake and 2 blowing up and out through my H100i radiator.
As I'm sure you would agree, sound is highly subjective. What RPM are your fans running at during recording? How long do you think your sessions will be? It might be a good idea to ditch the splitter and have each fan on it's own controller channel if at all possible. Then you can start tinkering and turn off fans that really aren't necessary depending on temps.
I could very well be wrong, but I doubt you're going to find fans as silent as you'd like.
The only other thing I could think of is trying to use a more directional mic...unless you already are?
You could even gimp the CPU in bios to lower temps even more? Just a thought.
As I'm sure you would agree, sound is highly subjective. What RPM are your fans running at during recording? How long do you think your sessions will be? It might be a good idea to ditch the splitter and have each fan on it's own controller channel if at all possible. Then you can start tinkering and turn off fans that really aren't necessary depending on temps.
I could very well be wrong, but I doubt you're going to find fans as silent as you'd like.
The only other thing I could think of is trying to use a more directional mic...unless you already are?
You could even gimp the CPU in bios to lower temps even more? Just a thought.
Has nothing to do with temps and I only have 1 PWM header that the splitter is plugged in to. The 5 fans all run at about 800RPM which is the lowest speed that my board will allow. The H100I is good enough that even at full load my fans don't spin up. I have enough headroom at 800RPM that I don't need any more cooling even at full load. I have a good Samson condenser microphone so that's what I am going to be using for the recordings.. Not changing that. I have a handheld decibel meter and it says that there is 35.1db of audible noise at the mic which is about 3 feet away from my PC. and 35.6 1 foot away. That seems really high to me. I guess the GT's are 2db quieter... It was 38db at the mic with the Delta's.
Move your pc and mic away from each other or unplug your fans for your recording sessions. The GTs at 850rpm should be very quiet and although there are probably many quieter fans I can't think of many that match the GTs for cfm:dba. Downclocking manually or letting speedstep do its thing along with unplugging the fans seems like the best idea to me, if all you are doing is recording some voice stuff and not really stressing your system.
As I'm sure you would agree, sound is highly subjective. What RPM are your fans running at during recording? How long do you think your sessions will be? It might be a good idea to ditch the splitter and have each fan on it's own controller channel if at all possible. Then you can start tinkering and turn off fans that really aren't necessary depending on temps.
I could very well be wrong, but I doubt you're going to find fans as silent as you'd like.
The only other thing I could think of is trying to use a more directional mic...unless you already are?
You could even gimp the CPU in bios to lower temps even more? Just a thought.
Has nothing to do with temps and I only have 1 PWM header that the splitter is plugged in to. The 5 fans all run at about 800RPM which is the lowest speed that my board will allow. The H100I is good enough that even at full load my fans don't spin up. I have enough headroom at 800RPM that I don't need any more cooling even at full load. I have a good Samson condenser microphone so that's what I am going to be using for the recordings.. Not changing that. I have a handheld decibel meter and it says that there is 35.1db of audible noise at the mic which is about 3 feet away from my PC. and 35.6 1 foot away. That seems really high to me. I guess the GT's are 2db quieter... It was 38db at the mic with the Delta's.
Ugh.....you are using the loudest possible cooling solution for every circumstance. that is the root of your problem. Most of your noise issue isn't being generated by the fans, it is being generated by the air passing through the extremely high fpi radiator which also happens to be located on the worst possible place at the perimeter of the case. This is why it didn't get any quieter. The fact that you have it in a case notorious for being noisy with absolutely no natural sound dampening isn't helping matters.
If you want quiet, switch to a somewhat sizeable air cooler. It doesn't have to be huge. A Noctua NH-U14S, BQ Dark Rock 3, Thermalright TS 140, etc can all perform as well as an H100i with significantly less noise.
Ugh.....you are using the loudest possible cooling solution for every circumstance. that is the root of your problem. Most of your noise issue isn't being generated by the fans, it is being generated by the air passing through the extremely high fpi radiator which also happens to be located on the worst possible place at the perimeter of the case. This is why it didn't get any quieter. The fact that you have it in a case notorious for being noisy with absolutely no natural sound dampening isn't helping matters.
If you want quiet, switch to a somewhat sizeable air cooler. It doesn't have to be huge. A Noctua NH-U14S, BQ Dark Rock 3, Thermalright TS 140, etc can all perform as well as an H100i with significantly less noise.
What case would you recommend? The reason that I went with the 540 was because it was the only case that I could find that could keep my 7970's cool while litecoin mining. I used to have the CM Storm Sniper and the video cards would overheat. When I switched to the A540 they didn't.
Basically my computer isn't used for what I got the A540 for in the first place anymore so if that's really the issue then I don't mind switching. As far as the Air coolers go.... I am not too sure about that honestly.... I don't know of any air cooler that can keep a CPU at less than 45C at full load at minimum fan speed. The reason I switched to the H100I was that my old 120mm tower air cooler couldn't keep my CPU under 65C.
killeraxemannic, what ciarltano is saying is a good air cooler can keep the CPU at 55-65c at sound levels below 30dB .. which is similar to the sound level in a very quiet room.
540 is not a quiet case and it does not have good airflow. A good quiet case would be something similar to Define R5 or Enthoo Luxe.
What case would you recommend? The reason that I went with the 540 was because it was the only case that I could find that could keep my 7970's cool while litecoin mining. I used to have the CM Storm Sniper and the video cards would overheat. When I switched to the A540 they didn't.
Basically my computer isn't used for what I got the A540 for in the first place anymore so if that's really the issue then I don't mind switching. As far as the Air coolers go.... I am not too sure about that honestly.... I don't know of any air cooler that can keep a CPU at less than 45C at full load at minimum fan speed. The reason I switched to the H100I was that my old 120mm tower air cooler couldn't keep my CPU under 65C.
Well, thankfully, I had the displeasure of testing and reviewing over 200 coolers in strictly controlled conditions, so I know of quite a few air coolers that outperform the H100i overall, and abolsutely blow it away at like noise levels. Especially on the LGA115X platform that you are running. Then you take things into account like the fact that something like an NH-D15 is quieter at full speed than an H100i with fans at minimal speeds......
If you are going to stick a high fpi rad on the top of the case with no buffering, changing cases isn't going to help you. You will still have straight line of site to the noisiest cooling solution possible.
killeraxemannic, what ciarltano is saying is a good air cooler can keep the CPU at 55-65c at sound levels below 30dB .. which is similar to the sound level in a very quiet room.
540 is not a quiet case and it does not have good airflow. A good quiet case would be something similar to Define R5 or Enthoo Luxe.
Actually......the 540 does have good airflow, for all of the same reasons that it is intolerably loud. It is basically a plastic box with a lot of big holes in it. And the holes are pretty well placed for airflow, but they leave the fans with no type of sound buffering at all.
Actually......the 540 does have good airflow, for all of the same reasons that it is intolerably loud. It is basically a plastic box with a lot of big holes in it. And the holes are pretty well placed for airflow, but they leave the fans with no type of sound buffering at all.
Lol yep... Thats exactly why I bought it in the first place lol.
Liking the look of the Fractal S....
So if currently I have 35db 3 feet away from my case with 3 GT2150's on the front, and 2 GT2150's on the top blowing up through the H100i what do you think my noise level would be if I switched to the Define S windowless with 2 of the GT2150's on the front, one on the back and 2 on some form of air cooler? Is there a good air cooler I could get for cheap that doesn't come with fans or is a good cooler with cheap fans since I already have the GT's to use on it?
My PSU is very quiet... Its a high end Seasonic... Fan usually doesn't even run.
Lol yep... Thats exactly why I bought it in the first place lol.
Liking the look of the Fractal S....
So if currently I have 35db 3 feet away from my case with 3 GT2150's on the front, and 2 GT2150's on the top blowing up through the H100i what do you think my noise level would be if I switched to the Define S windowless with 2 of the GT2150's on the front, one on the back and 2 on some form of air cooler? Is there a good air cooler I could get for cheap that doesn't come with fans or is a good cooler with cheap fans since I already have the GT's to use on it?
My PSU is very quiet... Its a high end Seasonic... Fan usually doesn't even run.
Well, then there is the next issue of swapping 140mm fans to 120mm fans. When the quality is similar, 140mm fans move for more air far more quietly than 120mm fans, so you are doing yourself a disservice changing the intakes, exhaust and most likely the cooler fans.
But, three of the GT as intakes may work out well running them at lower speeds. @Gilles3000 suggestion of the Scythe Fuma is a good one. Great cooler that is reasonably priced, and happens to use 120mm fans. Having three GTs as intake and two on the Fuma could be a great combination with the stock rear exhaust.
Well I just did some testing by unplugging stuff. The fans are definitely making some noise but I don't think it's all that much. The H100i pump definitely makes a bit of noise but not as much as the fans. I think my problem is that I have lots of things that make a little bit of noise if that makes any sense. So going through and unplugging stuff here is the list from loudest to quietest:
Loudest to quietest
1. GT2150's at 800RPM
2. Segate 2TB HDD
3. Rear stock A40 140 mm fan
4. H100i pump
5. Video card (inaudible)
6. PSU (inaudible)
So honestly I am not sure I could really make it much quieter. It seems like everything 1-4 is about the same loudness to my ears they all just have a different sound. For example just unplugging the H100i pump and nothing else doesn't really help, or the rear case fan for that matter. Unplugging all of the GT's definitely makes it a tad quieter but it still makes enough noise for the microphone to pick up and the difference between them plugged in and unplugged is negotiable. I would say anything on the 1-4 list is loud enough by itself to be too loud with nothing else running so all in all doing this was kind of discouraging. I could replace the H100i with an air cooler and get a quieter rear case fan but I still have the 2150's making noise as well as the hard drives. In reality it seems like I would have to replace everything on the 1-4 list to get the quietness I am looking for... Then comes about the question of what kind of hard drive would be quieter as well. that is all unless the Fractal S could block all of the nose from this stuff, but I really am not too sold on that being possible.
You could sell the h100i and replace it with a NH-D15, turn off all the fans, make the HDDs hotswappable and turn them off as well. Then it's just a matter of recording your stuff and writing it to your HDD after you've finished, assuming you've got enough space on your SSD - if you don't just buy one of the cheaper sandisk/crucial SSDs for storage. This would cut out every source of noise you haven't listed as inaudible!
A cheaper ghetto solution would be to just drop your case onto the floor and cover it in a few layers of cardboard whenever you need to record
You could sell the h100i and replace it with a NH-D15, turn off all the fans, make the HDDs hot swappable and turn them off as well. Then it's just a matter of recording your stuff and writing it to your HDD after you've finished, assuming you've got enough space on your SSD - if you don't just buy one of the cheaper sandisk/crucial SSDs for storage. This would cut out every source of noise you haven't listed as inaudible!
A cheaper ghetto solution would be to just drop your case onto the floor and cover it in a few layers of cardboard whenever you need to record
Whatever I do I want it to be a permanent solution. I don't really think I can turn off the fans while recording because I am usually recording audio and video directly into the computer so the CPU will be working to do the encoding. I was thinking about picking up a 500GB SSD to replace my current 250GB one as well as some kind of a low power green hard drive for storage that I could indeed turn off. That still leaves the issue of the noise of the H100i and case fans though. I could sell the H100i and get the HD-D15 but I really don't think the H100i is all that loud. The majority of the fan noise that I hear seems to be coming from the 3 fans in the front of the case not the 2 on the radiator or at least as far as I can hear. This brings me back to square one though... Seems like the GT 2150's are too loud. I am not sure if I would even need them though if I got the Fractal S as it looks like it comes with it's own fans and the NH-D15 does as well. I guess I could sell those too.. Seems like people are pretty eager to buy GT's here on the forums.
Same here, bought 5x Gentle Typhoons 1850rpm darkside and pwm versions like 6 months ago, paid a small fortune, and can say will never buy those fans again, they might perform, but even on 700rpm they have an annoing whine or motor noise to them, not just one, but all of them, seriously considered chucking those turds in the bin
Replaced all of them with phanteks F140MP fans and no annoying noises just silence.
Same here, bought 5x Gentle Typhoons 1850rpm darkside and pwm versions like 6 months ago, paid a small fortune, and can say will never buy those fans again, they might perform, but even on 700rpm they have an annoing whine or motor noise to them, not just one, but all of them, seriously considered chucking those turds in the bin
Replaced all of them with phanteks F140MP fans and no annoying noises just silence.
GTs are known for being quiet at load, not when idle. But I still think you're close to the point of diminishing returns with fans.
In other words, I think you're going about this all wrong: you've got an airflow focused case as opposed to a silence oriented one, and you've already got some very decent fans. A "silent" case with filters on every port and sound foam inside will help more than switching fans again.
EDIT: Just saw that you're looking at the Fractal S. That would work.
Actually......the 540 does have good airflow, for all of the same reasons that it is intolerably loud. It is basically a plastic box with a lot of big holes in it. And the holes are pretty well placed for airflow, but they leave the fans with no type of sound buffering at all.
In my opinion lots of venting does not necessarily equate to good airflow .. any more than lots of fans equate to good airflow. Sure they can blow lots of air in random directions inside the case, but this is not necessarily good airflow supplying components. Good airflow is about design and placement of venting and fans to flow cool air to components while flowing their heated exhaust out of case without it mixing with the cool air going to them. 540 does not do this because venting is not placed where needed.
540 is a good example of a random airblow case
Enthoo Luxe, Enthoo Pro, Define R5, etc have much better controlled airflow cases.
In my opinion lots of venting does not necessarily equate to good airflow .. any more than lots of fans equate to good airflow. Sure they can blow lots of air in random directions inside the case, but this is not necessarily good airflow supplying components. Good airflow is about design and placement of venting and fans to flow cool air to components while flowing their heated exhaust out of case without it mixing with the cool air going to them. 540 does not do this because venting is not placed where needed.
540 is a good example of a random airblow case
Enthoo Luxe, Enthoo Pro, Define R5, etc have much better controlled airflow cases.
I am looking at the Define R5 now because I found out that the S has less dampening foam and actually has none on the front. Are you talking about using the bottom intake fan in the Define? What would you say is the best setup for someone looking to keep quiet with that case?
I am looking at the Define R5 now because I found out that the S has less dampening foam and actually has none on the front. Are you talking about using the bottom intake fan in the Define? What would you say is the best setup for someone looking to keep quiet with that case?
Get rid of H100 to start with. Get something like TRUE Spirit 140 rev.A, Macho rev.B, NH-D14, NH-D15S, PH-TC14PE, R1 Ulitmate or Universal, and the list goes on and on. All of these listed are within a few degrees of each other.
Define R5 is pretty good out of the box. I'm not sure how good the stock fans are. Previous Define case fans did not flow air very well, but were quiet.
I often use bottom intake because it flows intake air directly toward GPU. I almost always remove unused PCIe back slot covers to improve front to back airflow.
You might find 'Ways to Better Cooling' linked in my sig of interest. 1st post is index, click on topic to see it. 5th is a good place to start. Near bottom of list is a Define case fan and vent mod topic.
I am looking at the Define R5 now because I found out that the S has less dampening foam and actually has none on the front. Are you talking about using the bottom intake fan in the Define? What would you say is the best setup for someone looking to keep quiet with that case?
Get rid of H100 to start with. Get something like TRUE Spirit 140 rev.A, Macho rev.B, NH-D14, NH-D15S, PH-TC14PE, R1 Ulitmate or Universal, and the list goes on and on. All of these listed are within a few degrees of each other.
Define R5 is pretty good out of the box. I'm not sure how good the stock fans are. Previous Define case fans did not flow air very well, but were quiet.
I often use bottom intake because it flows intake air directly toward GPU. I almost always remove unused PCIe back slot covers to improve front to back airflow.
You might find 'Ways to Better Cooling' linked in my sig of interest. 1st post is index, click on topic to see it. 5th is a good place to start. Near bottom of list is a Define case fan and vent mod topic.
Major letdown on the D5 is the restrictive front panel, and if you remove the top moduvents, the sound dampening foam and whatnot it has becomes useless.
Major letdown on the D5 is the restrictive front panel, and if you remove the top moduvents, the sound dampening foam and whatnot it has becomes useless.
So scratch what I said about mounting it on top. Still, all that might not be such a bad thing if noise dampening is the goal.
What's the good alternative? Nanoxia? NZXT? I haven't been keeping up with silent cases lately.
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